Six Spots in Search of a Theme

Here are a bunch of commercials that I thought were cool and/or noteworthy. These are overstocks that we couldn’t fit into any of our regular posts. Because of this we can offer them to you at the amazing discount price of 5 1/2 minutes of your time. Alright, 5 1/2 minutes plus however long it takes you to read the captions, assuming you read the captions (If you don’t read the captions, please ignore the last part of this caption.)

Muntz TV

Used car czar Earl “Madman” Muntz had a sideline of building television sets. There were several unusual animated commercials produced to sell these sets. This one was animated by Art Babbitt.

Navy – Fairy Godmother

Directed and animated by Robert Cannon. Designed by Chris Jenkyns. Produced by Playhouse pictures in 1957. Paul Frees narrates. The live action fairy godmother was put into the scenes by xeroxing the film frames onto cels, cutting the figures out with a razor blade, and then placing the pictures into the scene as cut-outs.

The Faygo Kid

John Hubley produced this commercial for Detoit’s own Faygo Pop in 1954. Clocking in at 1:20, it was one of the most popular local spots ever. Later, a cut-down minute version was used. Still, the local TV guide book would sometimes have ads telling you what program the spot would air on.

Uptown

Another Faygo brand ad. This one was produced by Playhouse Pictures, and animated by Phil Duncan and Bill Littlejohn. Featuring the voice of Hal Smith. From 1955.

Little Lulu – Kleenex

This spot answers the question: what would Lulu have looked like if she was animated on the West coast? Animation by Don Williams and Ed Love, with narration by Billy Bletcher.

Cocoa Puffs

A very heavy, psychedelic, kaleidoscopic romp. Did this even air? Do any of you junior hippies out there remember seeing a box that looks like the one at the end of this spot? I don’t.

One of my earliest memories is going to the Paramount Theatre with my parents. The movie was “The Second Time Around,” but I was far more interested in running around and looking out the lobby windows at Times Square. I particularly remember the Camel cigarettes sign and a Lulu Kleenex billboard.

About Mike Kazaleh

Mike Kazaleh is a cartoonist and animator whose work can be seen in comic books like Bongo's The Simpsons, Futurama and Papercutz' Annoying Orange - and on screen in Warner Bros. Tiny Toon Adventures, Ralph Bakshi's Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures and Cool World.